


Replaced

by unculturedswine



Category: Castle
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Original Character(s), Originally Posted on LiveJournal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-31
Updated: 2010-12-31
Packaged: 2019-07-11 17:38:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15977198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unculturedswine/pseuds/unculturedswine
Summary: Written for the Ryan & Esposito Secret Santa Fan Fic Exchange. Formichygeary. For the prompt: Ryan and Esposito get new partners—tension ensues.





	Replaced

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in 2010 (?!?) for a Secret Santa FanFic Exchange, but I thought I'd transfer it over here so I can pretend I actually write fanfiction still.

  
“What did you just say?” Ryan questioned.

Montgomery sighed. “Both of you,” he looked at Ryan and then Esposito, “Will be getting new partners.”

“I don’t need a new partner. I have a perfectly good partner right here.” Esposito told him, jabbing a thumb in Ryan’s direction.

“I realise that. If it were up to me, this wouldn’t be happening but it isn’t up to me.” Montgomery explained.

“Who’s it up to, then?” Ryan asked.

“My boss.” He said. “He wants you to work with the newbies.”

“Why can’t someone else do it?” Esposito questioned.

“He says you’re the best and, well, it’s true.” Montgomery told him.

“But…I don’t…You can’t…This isn’t fair.” Ryan stammered.

“Like I said, this isn’t up to me. I’m only telling you what I’ve been told. You’re getting new partners and that’s final.” Montgomery said, heading towards the door.

“Do we at least get to continue working with Beckett?” Esposito asked.

Montgomery turned and frowned. “Sometimes.”

He opened the door to his office and the two men exited. “You’ll be meeting your new partners tomorrow.”

Esposito turned to reply but the hand on his shoulder stopped him. There was no point in arguing. Neither they nor Montgomery could change the situation. Both Ryan and Esposito walked into the elevator silently. They continued their ritual of playing Madden every Thursday night and kept the topic as far away from their lost partnership as possible.

\- -

The next morning the atmosphere in the precinct was tense. Word had gotten around about the sudden change in the group. No one on the floor seemed thrilled. They were all family and adding new members could seriously mess up the dynamics already formed.

“There has to be something we can do,” Castle had said when he heard the news.

“There’s nothing we can do.” Beckett had told him. “There’s nothing I can do, there’s nothing you can do, there’s nothing Montgomery or Esposito or Ryan can do. It’s not up to us anymore.”

“I don’t give up so easily.” Castle had told her and walked away.

The newbies arrived sometime after lunch. They had brought doughnuts as some sort of peace offering. No one ate them as a matter of principle. They stepped into Montgomery’s office as soon as they arrived. Esposito and Ryan were called a short moment later. As they walked, Ryan had a strange urge to hold onto Esposito’s hand as if the act would somehow make everything better. He didn’t.

Montgomery smiled as they entered. “Javier Esposito, this is your new partner Ella Cohen.”

A petite woman in her early thirties with shoulder length brown hair and sparkling green eyes stepped towards him. Her skin was fair in contrast to her dark clothing. She smiled at Esposito as she brought out her hand and shook his.

“And Kevin Ryan, this is your new partner Devin Zokora.”

The man who stepped forward to shake Ryan’s hand towered over him. He didn’t smile when he grabbed Ryan’s hand into a firm handshake.

“Nice to meet you.” Ryan said to him.

The man grunted in reply.

Ryan hated him already.

There wasn’t much time for them to get to know each other. Esposito and Cohen were instantly shipped off to work on a hit-and-run case. Ryan and Zokora were left to sit around and wait for Beckett and Castle to return. They, or at least Ryan did, tried to start up a conversation but they had nothing in common.

“Do you play any video games?” Ryan asked as a last attempt to start up a conversation with his new partner.

“No.” Zokora replied with an accent that Ryan was still unable to place. “I’m 35, not 15.”

“Oh.” Ryan mumbled, missing Esposito more than he ever thought he would.

The two fell into another awkward silence. Ryan began to fidget. He wasn’t used to such tension.

“So, where are you from? I’m not able to place your accent.”

“Côte d'Ivoire.”

Ryan quirked an eyebrow.

“The Ivory Coast.”

“Oh, right, yeah.”

Ryan stood to get another coffee. It was the only thing he could do to get away. He’d had three so far. Out of instinct he filled two mugs with the dark liquid. As he walked out of the break room he saw Castle and Beckett hovering over his new partner.

“The Ivory Coast? It must be beautiful there.” He could hear Castle saying.

“No, not really”, was the reply.

Ryan walked over and placed the cup of coffee in front of Zokora.

“I don’t like coffee.”

\- -

The day dragged on. Becket and Castle were unable to close their case. They were stuck with little evidence and the evidence they had lead nowhere.

“Just because the vic was killed by ninja stars does not mean a ninja is the suspect.” Becket reasoned.

“Firstly, they are called shuriken. And secondly, you better hope a ninja didn’t kill the guy because if it was a ninja then we’ll never be able to catch him.” Castle said.

Ryan and Zokora couldn’t find any evidence either. Whenever they came up shorthanded Zokora got more and more frustrated.

“This doesn’t make any sense!” He fumed. “How could he have left no evidence behind?”

“One word: ninja.” Castle muttered in reply.

“Oh, get off your ninja ideas!” Zokora barked. “There are no ninjas in New York!”

Castle wasn’t one to openly hate someone but he really did not like Ryan’s new partner. Only Beckett was allowed to tell him his ideas were stupid.

By the end of the day, Ryan was ready to head home with a beer and a pizza to play a couple of rounds of Halo: Reach with his old, but still favourite, partner. Esposito arrived at the precinct while Ryan was finishing up some much overdue paperwork. When Ryan looked up to see Esposito heading his way, he grinned.

“Hey Esposito.” Ryan called.

Esposito grinned back at him. “Hey, man.”

“It’s been so weird not working with you today.” Esposito went on.

“Yeah.” Ryan agreed. “So, are we still up for Halo tonight?”

“Look, man, I can’t. Cohen and I are going to go out and grab some beers, get to know each other, you know.” Esposito explained. “Maybe you should do the same with Zokora.”

“Oh… right. Well, maybe.” Ryan replied. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“See ya, bro.” Esposito said, walking away.

\- -  
As the days went on, Ryan saw Esposito less and less. Esposito spent most of his time, both at work and outside of work, with his new partner. Ryan felt replaced, so he tried to replace Esposito just like he had replaced Ryan. He began playing video games against the computers; though he was pretty sure they cheated. He tried to make friends with his neighbours even though he secretly hated them all. He brought more street-side furniture into his house and he purposely butchered his Spanish when he ordered from Esposito’s favourite Mexican restaurant. Nothing really worked.

Ryan took to wallowing in his own self-pity any chance he got. He was having one such pity party when Esposito walked up to him.

“Hey, bro.” Esposito greeted. “I was wondering if you wanted to go out and grab a pizza. Maybe play some Madden.”

Ryan glared at him as best he could. “You’re not hanging out with Cohen tonight?”

“Nah. I think I’ve gotten to know her pretty well.”

If that wasn’t a euphemism for sex, he didn’t know what was. His stomach turned at the thought.

“Yeah, well, I’m busy.” He lied.

“Oh. Doing what?”

“Uh.... Zokora and I are hanging out.”

It was at that moment that Zokora just so happened to show up.

“No we’re not.” He stated simply.

“Don’t you remember me asking you to hang out?”

“No. I don’t remember… because it didn’t happen.”

Esposito looked at Ryan strangely. “What’s going on, bro?”

“Nothing.” Ryan replied, standing. “I’ve got to go.”

Ryan made it home in record-breaking time. He threw himself onto the couch. He was about to have the pity party that would beat all other pity parties when his doorbell rang. He opened the door expecting pizza, even though he hadn’t ordered any, and found Esposito instead. He debated closing the door again but decided that’d just worsen everything.

“Kev, tell me what’s wrong.” Esposito demanded, stepping into the apartment.

“Nothing is wrong.” Ryan replied as he closed the door.

“That’s bullshit, man.” Esposito told him. “I can tell when something is wrong with you.”

Ryan huffed. He wasn’t in the mood for this.

“Does this have something to do with our new partners,” questioned Esposito.

“Obviously!” Ryan snapped.

“Dude, did you think I replaced you with Cohen?” Esposito asked.

“Of course I did. You spend every waking hour with Cohen like she’s the second coming of Christ, or something. You’ve bailed on our game nights for weeks. I’ve had to play against computers and you know I hate that! I’ve been stuck with Zokora who hates every single thing, especially me, and you’re off having copious amounts of sex with some cute blonde. It really just—”

Esposito cut him off the only way he could think of. He kissed him. The kiss was chaste, but it worked, Ryan stopped talking.

“I could never replace you, you idiot.” Esposito told him and kissed him again.

\--

The next day at work neither Esposito nor Ryan could find their partners. They weren’t on a case, they weren’t in the break room, and they weren’t in the morgue. They both decided to just wait at their desks until Cohen and Zokora arrived.

“They’re not coming.” Montgomery, who had seen their whole search, told them.

“Where are they?” Ryan asked.

“Some other precinct.” Montgomery replied. “My boss changed his mind.”

“Does that mean—”

“Yeah, you and Esposito are partners again.”

Castle sat at his usual spot beside Beckett’s desk watching the whole conversation.

“I told you I don’t give up easily.”  



End file.
